Florida

I spent almost 2 weeks in Florida. First I went to Tampa to visit one of my best friends. I stayed with her for 4 days. We went to the beach, aquarium, pool time in her pool and most important time to catch up. It was wonderful. She has 3 kids and Alyssa was in heaven playing all day long.  Then Russ flew in and we drove to Orlando. We went to Sea World's water park Aquatica. It had a few sections specifically for younger kids with small slides. That day it thunder stormed a lot but would pass by after 30 min or so and we could get in the water again. Then we drove to Panama City which is on the panhandle of Florida. It was a long drive (6hrs). We meet the rest of my family at the beach house. We spent the next week at the beach house. The beach was beautiful. Perfect soft white sand, green water, gentle waves. Alyssa learned how to boogie board. We played at the beach for 2 days. Then a huge storm came and it rained the rest of the trip. This rain was a flooding, pouring type of rain and it never let up. One ay we had a break in the storm for 2 hours and we ran to the beach even though it was windy we took advantage of it. Sadly I only brought my camera to the beach on the windy day so I don't have any good pictures of the beautiful sand and ocean. When the storm came it messed up the water and turned it brown and also created a brown dike coke looking foam. We played lots of games in the house. It was fun to hang out with my whole family!

board walk to the beach

Kate loved the beach

Whole family with Russ behind the camera

Noelle I had to post this because it is just to funny

In the sea foam

Kate loved the golf cart and beach chairs!

This doesn't do the sea foam justice. It really looked like someone shook up a bottle of diet coke and poured it the ocean

Kate the Great

I like documenting little parts of life so I can remember the in between moments later. Kate is a great sleeper (thank you baby wise). She now loves to "read" her self books in her bed before she falls asleep. She wont let me rock her anymore. I read her one or two and then put her in her crib with one or two. She is so cute, I can watch her on the baby monitor looking at the books before she lays down and goes to sleep. She also likes to cuddle her blankets.When she wakes up in the morning she likes to show me everything she has in her crib, walk around in it before she will let me pick her up. I can't get enough of this girl!

Summer is magical

I remember summers as a child. Swimming and playing all day. It is was so much fun. I love watching my children experiencing it as well. We are lucky to have a lot of kids in our neighborhood. We have quite a few right on our street they love bouncing between houses. They were jumping on the triplets trampoline then they came over to our yard for sprinkler fun (we have one of the biggest backyards so more room to run)

Kate loves to be involved with what the kids are doing

Donut Falls

We went hiking to Donut Falls. It was the perfect hike for Alyssa. She was able to hike the whole distance with out complaining. She also hiked with me up the rocks to view the actual falls through the donut hole. It was a lot of fun. I didn't know we would be hiking through the river and I wore tennis shoes. Alyssa had her Keens which were perfect. The mountains are so beautiful. We are going to try and go hiking a lot this summer.

The beauty

I can't carry the kids due to my back. Alyssa was sick of walking in the water so Russ gladly carried both across this river

Loves finding walking sticks!

Me(Ashley) and Alyssa climbed up the rocks. Alyssa was a little rock climber!

At the top of the falls.

The falls at the top

The falls at the bottom coming through the rock

AF canyon half marathon

I ran the American Fork Canyon half marathon yesterday. I was so happy I was able to do it. I had been training really hard to get my PR(personal record) time this half marathon. 3 weeks ago I was disabled by debilitating back pain due to 2 herniated disc. I got a cortisone shot in my back and did physical therapy. One week before the race was my first run post injury. I had to take 2 1/2 weeks off of running right before the race. I was devastated at first that I might not be able to run the race. My back recovered just in time to race. I really tried not to set my heart on getting my PR due to my injury but being my competitive self I couldn't let it go. My goal was 1:55 or faster. I was able to finish in 1:53.  I ran it with some friends in my ward. It was a lot of run. The race is so well put together. After the race we went and got pedicures. It was a great day. I love the feeling post race or accomplishing my goal! My crazy mind actually considered doing a full marathon again. We will see though.

After

Before

Soccer season #2

Alyssa had her last game of her tots soccer season today. She was NOT into it this year. At first she likes it but after she comes out and rests she hardly wants to go back in. I have to convince her to play. It was a little frustrating.  She scored a few goals this season, which made her really excited. She had a girl on her team who got the ball every single time and would dribble it all the way down and score goal after goal. It made the other kids not want to play because they hardly ever got a chance to even touch the ball. There is 4 kids on each team out at a time. So 8 kids and 1 ball everyone running in a clump next to each other is hard for kids this age.  Most of our team was like Alyssa, not having a ton of fun because of the "ball hog" haha, Noelle told me not to get annoyed because that was her as a 4 year old. =)

After Alyssa scored a goal, she was doing a victory dance.

Kate actually loved the games. She clapped for Alyssa all the time and of course she LOVED the snacks.

Alyssa the Flower girl

My friend from the Philippines got married in SLC a few weeks ago. She asked Alyssa to one of her flower girls. They got married in the temple but then had a ring ceremony afterwards. Alyssa got to walk down the isle and everything. If you know Alyssa, she was ecstatic to do this. She had so much fun and of course made friends with the other flower girls.